Various types of exercise equipment have been used over the years to provide different types of desired exercises. Flexible or elastic means have often been used to provide stretching exercises of fairly limited application. For example, such exercise apparatus might provide for tension in a single direction substantially along the (stationary or movable) longitudinal axis of the flexible member.
Recently there has been an increase in interest in exercise apparatus. However, typically, each exercise apparatus--whether of the resistance, weight or hydraulic machine variety, is limited in its range of motion and provides exercises for one or a very small number of muscle groups of the body. In addition, most commonly such devices must be reconfigured or readjusted or weights must be changed in order to provide flexibility in exercise routines.
In addition, it is not uncommon for exercise apparatus for a total program of exercises to require between 8 and 15 separate stations at which individual exercises or groups of exercises are performed. Often each such station costs of the order of $2000-$4000 and, thus, in order to provide a "full fitness" gym, substantial expenditures and the consumption of significant amounts of space must be encountered.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a relatively simple, inexpensive, and compact exercise apparatus which provides for a plurality of exercises for each of the main muscle groups of the body and which is easily adaptable for use in an exercise program, yet provides the flexibility required for the development of individual programs for the numerous individuals who may use the same piece of equipment. Rather than using many of the complex mechanical structures presently in use, the present invention is directed towards an exercise apparatus which utilizes elastic or flexible means for providing a variety of exercises, consumes relatively little space, and is comparatively inexpensive.
Various exercising elastic (or stretching) type apparatus are disclosed in the prior art. Such devices are shown, for example, in Caines (U.S. Pat. No. 1,112,114), Sandow (U.S. Pat. Nos. 610,416 and 588,017), Hunter (U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,724) and Bushnell (U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,914). The latter of these prior art patents discloses an elongate tensioned elastic means 13 attached at both ends to a frame and responsive to yieldingly resist muscular exertion by a person when deflected by such exertion during exercises and to yieldingly assist generally upward bodily movement during exercises when downwardly deflected by the body weight of the person before the exercises are performed. The upward bodily movement occurs during the muscular exertion against at least one surface substantially fixed in position during the exercise. Manual means is also disclosed for selectively varying the position for the entire length of the elastic means in the frame.
None of the known prior art exercise apparatus (including that utilizing elastic or flexible means), however, provides for a variety of variable or repeatable exercises for all of the major muscle groups of the body while at the same time being relatively inexpensive, compact and simple to use.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide such an exercise apparatus which permits static (stretching muscles by muscle movement only), semi-static (stretching muscles both by muscle movement and by the force of another object) and ballistic (moving body portions against resistive means in a vigorous in and out manner) exercises either of the continuously variable nature or in a controlled repeatable sequence, yet may be simply modified to provide for differing degrees of difficulty for the same repeated sequences and which is easily adaptable for use in a defined, preplanned exercise program.